Beijing’s hospital construction on South China Sea island to finish in June amid heightened tensions with neighbours
China is carrying out construction, including the building of a hospital on one of its islands in the South China Sea, state media says, amid increased tensions with its Southeast Asian neighbours over the hotly contested waters.
The building work on Fiery Cross Reef, or known as Yongshu Reef by the Chinese, in the Spratly Islands would be finished later in June and was expected to go into use quite soon, the state-owned news portal Xinhuanet.com reports.
Wang Zhiguang, the party chief of the project at First Harbour Engineering Company, which is part of China Communications Construction Company, said the construction, which started in November, would cover a total area of 16,000 square metres.
It had taken more than 500 engineers and construction workers less than three months to complete the project, he said.
The report also quoted an unnamed official as saying that the hospital would be equipped with modern medical facilities, while mainland experts would be able to offer consultations via remote telecommunications for the diagnosis and treatment involving major operations or rare diseases.
Other civilian facilities built on the reef include a farm that has raised 68 pigs, the report said.
China has been speeding up the construction of facilities, including beacons and airstrips, on the reef and islets – most of which are artificial – which are territories that are disputed with nations in the region.
Fiery Cross is also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
The lighthouse on the Mischief Reef, which will be more than 60 metres tall, will be the highest building on the Spratly Islands.
It will be equipped with the Chinese-produced Beidou satellite navigation system, as well as powerful lamps that will be able to emit a white light at night that can reach distances of more than 20 nautical miles, the report quoted Xue Anqing, a deputy director of First Harbour, as saying.
China has claimed more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea – based on a so-called “nine-dash line”, drawn on a map in the 1940s, which was lodged informally with the United Nations in 2009.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to rule on the legality of the nine-dash line after the Philippines challenged China’s South China Sea claims.
The Philippines claims, in part, that no reefs, atolls or islets in the Spratly archipelago can legally be considered islands, and, therefore, cannot bestow rights to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
Manila wants the court to declare that Beijing’s claims must comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which both the Philippines and China are parties.
However, Beijing refused to participate in the case.
China has repeatedly criticised the international court ruling – calling it an “orchestrated show” –
and has said it will not accept the decision, which is likely to go against Beijing.
The ruling could come later in June.
